


hero of his own story: new beginnings

by Spikedluv



Series: chris argent appreciation week [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Kate Argent mentioned - Freeform, M/M, OC: Joanna Hale, OC: Patrick Hale Mentioned, Original Characters - Freeform, Talia Hale mentioned - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 09:44:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15660678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spikedluv/pseuds/Spikedluv
Summary: Chris and Peter put Peter’s plan into motion.





	hero of his own story: new beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> This fic follows immediately after [hero of his own story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14277234).
> 
> Written for the _new beginnings/happily ever after_ prompt at [Chris Argent Appreciation Week on Tumblr](https://chrisargentappreciationweek.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Written: August 3, 2018

Chris had been returned home in time to attend the funeral. He stood beside a disconsolate Kate and pretended to grieve the father he’d . . . if not hated, certainly hadn’t loved.

Chris had found his truck in the garage; the window replaced, the blood cleaned off the seat. Of course his disappearance hadn’t been reported to the authorities – Gerard had probably been certain he’d find whoever had taken Chris, if he looked at all, and he wouldn’t want local law enforcement taking too close a look into his business.

After the funeral Chris was questioned by Sheriff Williams about the guns they’d found in Gerard’s truck. Chris told him what he knew about the family weapon’s business, and informed Williams that, now that he was the head of the family. He was going to take the family business in a different direction.

Chris would continue to procure weapons for local law enforcement because he needed access for his own purposes, but the main thrust of their cover business would now be security. All of the unregistered guns in the truck and the house had been confiscated. Because Chris had neither owned nor had any hand in managing the business, Sheriff Williams merely gave him a warning.

Chris talked to Kate first, and then the men who’d worked for Gerard. He spun the tale of how Peter had found him, had saved him, and how it made him realize that not all werewolves were monsters. There had been some push back, which Chris had expected.

“Without Peter Hale I might be dead now,” Chris said. “But let’s talk about the rest of the Hales. Since you men have been stationed in Beacon Hills, how many hunts have you been on?”

“Dozens!” someone called out.

“How many in Beacon Hills?” Chris ignored the murmurs. “Two? Three? There was the omega . . .” Chris let the others call out answers to fill in the blanks.

“How many of those hunts were due to someone in the Hale pack losing control?”

Chris waited until the hunters fell silent. “None,” he said. “Because the Hale pack is stable and takes care of their own, and of this town. The Hale pack has been here for generations. They help to protect this area from worse. There’s a reason Gerard agreed to a truce with them, even though he hates . . . hated werewolves.”

Chris paused and looked out over the group. “Because they could be allies.” He waited for their reaction before continuing. “For that reason, and because of the debt I owe Peter Hale, as head of the Argent family I’m going to renew that truce and take steps to forge a more formal alliance.”

The room erupted in yells of dismay and shouted questions, but it was still less volatile than when Chris told them that they’d have to be part of the legitimate business Chris was setting up if they wanted to remain as part of the Argent organization. They couldn’t continue to just roll into town when there was a problem like they had done in the days before cell phones and the new world wide web.

Chris held up his hands and waited until everyone was silent. “Times change, and we have to change with them. We can’t rely on the things our fathers and grandfathers told us when we see with our own eyes that they were wrong. I’ve seen that not all werewolves are monsters, and so have all of you. If we deny the proof of our own eyes we might as well be blind.”

“How’d it go?” Peter said later, when Chris snuck away to meet him.

“Good, I think. I lost one when he found out he’d have to fill out a W2 and get taxed, and I might lose one or two more over the alliance.”

“Did you tell them the full extent of the alliance?”

“No. One thing at a time; I want them to get used to the idea of a formal alliance before I tell them what that entails.”

“We should celebrate how smoothly everything’s going,” Peter said.

“Don’t jinx us,” Chris protested, but Peter shoved his hand inside Chris’ jeans and unerringly found the tattoo on Chris’ hip and Chris forgot about everything else besides the way Peter took him apart.

~*~

Two days later Chris sat across a table from Joanna Hale. Kate sat at his right, Antoine at his left. Talia sat at her mother’s right, Patrick, Joanna’s husband sat at her left. Peter stood behind them, there only because Chris had requested his presence.

“The Hales and the Argents have a truce.” Chris began the spiel he and Peter had practiced. “It sounds good in theory, but in practice it’s an agreement that merely embodies the Code we practice, should practice: you leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone. It doesn’t have any teeth. I’d like to propose that we strengthen the existing truce by creating a more formal alliance.”

Joanna Hale, who’d remained politely silent while Chris spoke, said, “What would be the benefit of that?”

“Instead of merely leaving each other alone, we agree to come to the other’s aid should they require it. Additionally, I hope that other families will come to understand what I’ve learned – that just as some humans can be monsters, not all werewolves are.”

“And you came to this understanding simply because my son saved you?”

Chris glanced at Peter, who’d been saving him since the day their eyes met across the room in ninth grade Algebra. “Yes.”

Joanna hid her surprise at the honesty in that one word. “How do you suggest we formalize this alliance?”

Chris kept his expression neutral, but he couldn’t control his racing heart. “The same way alliances have been formed for hundreds of years,” he said. “By marriage.”

Talia sucked in a breath. Patrick didn’t move. Joanna’s eyes darted to Kate.

“Is that why you brought your sister?”

“No!” Chris said, horrified. “Kate is here because one day she’ll be the head of this family and she needs to learn how to negotiate, as well as learn the same lessons I needed to learn about werewolves.”

“Then what are you proposing?” Joanna Hale’s gaze moved to Antoine, who shifted uncomfortably.

“Myself,” Chris said.

Joanna Hale’s gaze snapped back to Chris. “Talia will be the alpha after me,” she said, implying that no hunter would be allowed to marry the heir apparent, even one who’d had a change of heart, “and in any case, is already married.”

“I was thinking of someone else,” Chris said, unable to keep his gaze from moving to Peter. “Someone high enough in your family’s hierarchy to not be insulting to our family, and not so high as to be insulting to yours.”

“Is that what you were thinking?” Joanna Hale said. Without taking her eyes off Chris, she announced, “I’d like to speak with Mr. Argent and Peter alone.”

Talia and Patrick immediately rose. Kate and Antoine hesitated.

“Go,” Chris said. “I’ll be fine.”

Joanna Hale waited until Kate and Antoine were far enough away to not overhear before she spoke. “How long have you two been planning this?”

“I’m sorry?” Chris said.

“You think I can’t tell that my son has already claimed you?” Joanna Hale said. She waited for Chris to digest that information. “So I ask again, how long have you two been planning this?”

“A week,” Chris said at the same time Peter said, “Since I met him.”

Chris rolled his eyes. Joanna Hale sighed.

“Was Gerard Argent’s death really an accident?”

“He died of natural causes,” Peter said.

“That’s not what I asked.”

“His heart attack might have been induced,” Peter admitted.

“By what, a drug?”

“By me telling him I’d claimed Chris.”

Joanna Hale absorbed that before looking at Chris. “And you were okay with that?”

“I didn’t know until it was over,” Chris said, “but I’m not going to miss him. Gerard . . . he told me that he’d leave your family alone if I left Peter, so I did that. Or tried to.”

“So you’re okay with killing your father because he stood in the way of you being with the boy you liked.”

“No,” Chris said, horrified. “I’m not okay with it. But I know Gerard, and your family, *Peter*, wouldn’t have been safe as long as Gerard was alive, even though I’d done what he asked. And so I accept it.”

Joanna Hale was silent while she considered that. “Who else knows this?”

“About which?”

“Either, both.”

“No one,” Chris said.

“Peter?”

“No one,” Peter confirmed.

“Alright,” Joanna Hale said. “I need to think about this.”

“Mother!”

“Don’t you ‘mother’ me,” Joanna Hale said. “Right now I have to think about this an alpha responsible for an entire pack, not just you. A formal merger might bring too much unwanted attention down on us. If anyone found out what you’d done they might believe that we were complicit.”

Joanna Hale rose. “Mr. Argent.”

Chris followed her lead and stood. “Alpha Hale.”

Joanna Hale turned to Peter. She cupped the side of his face. “You should have come to me.”

“I thought . . .”

“You thought you’d present me with a fait accompli and I’d just sign off on it.”

“I thought you’d make me give him up.”

Joanna Hale nodded. “I might have. But it’s too late for that now.”

Chris and Peter stared at each other across the table as Joanna Hale walked away. Peter rounded the table, uncaring of anyone who might be watching. Chris stopped Peter from getting too close by extending his hand. Peter took Chris’ hand in the guise of shaking it and squeezed it.

“What if she says no?” Peter said. Peter, who was the one with the plan, always thinking two steps ahead.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Chris said.

~*~

Twenty-four hours later Joanna Hale called Chris with her answer. “I have discussed your proposal with Patrick and Talia. We agree to the alliance.”

Chris waited a moment, expecting to hear a ‘but’. When it didn’t come, he said, “You do?”

“Yes. Peter can be very persuasive when he wants something.”

“I know,” Chris said in sympathy, then froze. “Um.”

“Let’s just acknowledge the fact that I know you and my son are having sex and we never speak of it again.”

“Yes,” Chris said eagerly as Peter stifled a laugh beside him. “Let’s.”

Chris ended the call moments later. “I can’t believe she said yes.”

“I can’t believe that stuff about adapting worked on her, too,” Peter said.

Chris dropped the phone back onto the night stand. “We’re getting married.”

With the claim they were already a couple according to werewolf lore, but now it would be more formal. Their marriage wouldn’t be sanctioned by the state since two men couldn’t obtain a marriage license in California, and they had to wait until the extended Hale family arrived and Chris broke the news to his ‘employees’, but they’d be married in their hearts and in the eyes of anyone who mattered to them.

Chris kissed Peter. “That was our first kiss as an officially engaged couple.” He kissed Peter again. “Our second.”

Peter captured Chris’ mouth on the third and drew him down. There was a lot they had yet to experience as an officially engaged couple.

The End


End file.
